LSC 5530 School Library Advocacy Mod 7: Writing a Mock Grant Application Part 1
NCATE Assessment
This assignment is a designated AASL/NCATE Assessment which is used as evidence of competencies learned by graduate students in Mansfield's School Library & Info Technologies program. Scoring data from this assignment are reported and analyzed during the AASL/NCATE Accreditation process that occurs every five years to ensure that our program meets rigorous standards.
Purpose
In AASL's national guidelines for school library programs, Empowering Learners, SLMSs today are expected to seek "additional funding through fundraisers, grant writing, and parent donation programs" (35). School budgets are simply strained trying to meet all the high stakes academic standards and often library budgets are the first to be cut. Seeking outside funding and preparing a successful grant application requires a special set of writing skills not usually taught in undergraduate education preparatory programs. However, to provide the school with a rich array of learning resources, grant writing skills need to be learned and practiced. AASL/NCATE Standards Addressed 4.2 Managing program resources: Human, financial, physical
Candidates develop and evaluate policies and procedures that support the mission of the school and address specific needs of the library media program, such as collection development and maintenance, challenged materials and acceptable use policies. Candidates apply accepted management principles and practices that relate to personnel, financial and operational issues. Candidates plan adequate space for individuals, small groups and whole classes. 4.3 Comprehensive and collaborative strategic planning and assessment
Candidates collaborate with teachers and administrators to develop a library media program plan that aligns resources, services and information literacy standards with the school's goals and objectives. Candidates use data for decision-making. Directions In this activity, your group will write the first half of a mock grant application for one of the two potential grants listed below. Groups are assigned and posted in the announcements. Select one of the sample grants below and write the following components of the grant:
Title
Needs or Problem Statement
Goals and Objectives
Activities/Procedures
Since you are only completing selected sections of a grant proposal, you may have a short explanatory section prefacing the grant application to help explain your project. Label this “Notes to Instructor.” You may create a fictitious school, however, the research and best practices that you cite must come from real research. You may reference “fake” surveys conducted at the school. So you can be creative with much of this. Groups should use the Group Discussion area to converse and share ideas. This areas will be used to determine the 25 points for each person’s participation in the group.
After School Reading Enrichment Grant
The Educational Foundation for Better Readers is offering $8,000 to schools to develop an after school reading enrichment program to be implemented during an academic school year. This competitive grant will be awarded based on need and the impact the grant can have on at-risk student populations. The Foundation has a mission toward improving literacy and access to libraries and reading materials for preschool to grade 12 students. For helpful ideas: Bernard, Sara. "After School Works! (As Long as It's Not More of the Same)." Edutopia 6 June 2007. Web. 10 Jan. 2010.
Staff Collaboration Grant
The state department of education is offering $5,000 to schools to improve collaboration among teachers, library media specialists, and administrators in order to improve students’ use of libraries and information. Priority will be given to grants that can be replicated in other schools to improve communications, planning, and collaborative teaching among staff and to grants that can demonstrate an impact on student learning and improved instruction.
Need Statement demonstrates need for the target audience, citing at least three applicable research studies, surveys, or best practices.
25
Needs Statement relates proposal to educational improvements for students and student learning. Include some student or school demographic or assessment data.
10
Needs Statement addresses/connects to the mission of the funding agency.
10
Two appropriate goals are developed. Goals are broad, yet relate benefits to the students.
5
Each goal has at least two specific, targeted SMART objectives. Must be written in SMART format as described in Mod 6.)
20
Each objective has at least two activities that will address how the objective will be met. Activities need to be clearly aligned with/address an identified objective. One objective must evaluate student learning as related to the grant.
10
The grant is professionally written (use third person), uses headers for sections for ease of reading, and includes a Works Cited at the end. All pages are numbered with 1" margins around and 1.5" line spacing. (Tables/charts, if used, may be single spaced.)
15
Individual participation (based on forum)
25
Total
125
Assignment Assists A helpful PowerPoint on writing SMART objectives can be found at http://www.ode.state.or.us/opportunities/grants/hklb/hss/smart-objectives-hklb-inst-3-2-07.ppt. Although created by the Healthy Kids Learn Better project of the Dept. of Oregon Education to help schools apply for health education school grants, it can be applied to developing well-written objectives for this assignment. Submitting the Assignment Only one person from the group needs to submit the assignment. However, please put all names of group members on the final work. Submit the assignment using this file naming convention. GroupA_7_GrantPt1_5530
LSC 5530 School Library Advocacy
Mod 7: Writing a Mock Grant Application Part 1
This assignment is a designated AASL/NCATE Assessment which is used as evidence of competencies learned by graduate students in Mansfield's School Library & Info Technologies program. Scoring data from this assignment are reported and analyzed during the AASL/NCATE Accreditation process that occurs every five years to ensure that our program meets rigorous standards.
Purpose
In AASL's national guidelines for school library programs, Empowering Learners, SLMSs today are expected to seek "additional funding through fundraisers, grant writing, and parent donation programs" (35). School budgets are simply strained trying to meet all the high stakes academic standards and often library budgets are the first to be cut. Seeking outside funding and preparing a successful grant application requires a special set of writing skills not usually taught in undergraduate education preparatory programs. However, to provide the school with a rich array of learning resources, grant writing skills need to be learned and practiced.
AASL/NCATE Standards Addressed
4.2 Managing program resources: Human, financial, physical
Candidates develop and evaluate policies and procedures that support the mission of the school and address specific needs of the library media program, such as collection development and maintenance, challenged materials and acceptable use policies. Candidates apply accepted management principles and practices that relate to personnel, financial and operational issues. Candidates plan adequate space for individuals, small groups and whole classes.
4.3 Comprehensive and collaborative strategic planning and assessment
Candidates collaborate with teachers and administrators to develop a library media program plan that aligns resources, services and information literacy standards with the school's goals and objectives. Candidates use data for decision-making.
Directions
In this activity, your group will write the first half of a mock grant application for one of the two potential grants listed below. Groups are assigned and posted in the announcements. Select one of the sample grants below and write the following components of the grant:
Since you are only completing selected sections of a grant proposal, you may have a short explanatory section prefacing the grant application to help explain your project. Label this “Notes to Instructor.” You may create a fictitious school, however, the research and best practices that you cite must come from real research. You may reference “fake” surveys conducted at the school. So you can be creative with much of this.
Groups should use the Group Discussion area to converse and share ideas. This areas will be used to determine the 25 points for each person’s participation in the group.
For helpful ideas:
Bernard, Sara. "After School Works! (As Long as It's Not More of the Same)." Edutopia 6 June 2007. Web. 10 Jan. 2010.
Mod 7 Assignment Grading Rubric ||~ CRITERIA ||~ Points
||
A helpful PowerPoint on writing SMART objectives can be found at http://www.ode.state.or.us/opportunities/grants/hklb/hss/smart-objectives-hklb-inst-3-2-07.ppt. Although created by the Healthy Kids Learn Better project of the Dept. of Oregon Education to help schools apply for health education school grants, it can be applied to developing well-written objectives for this assignment.
Submitting the Assignment
Only one person from the group needs to submit the assignment. However, please put all names of group members on the final work. Submit the assignment using this file naming convention.
GroupA_7_GrantPt1_5530